2023 FC Dallas Player Recaps: Tsiki Ntsabeleng
2023 FC Dallas Player Recaps: Tsiki Ntsabeleng
The sophomore season for Ntsabeleng saw fewer minutes but more production.
Our 2023 FC Dallas player recaps continue with midfielder Tsiki Ntsabeleng.
The South African native wrapped up his second season with FC Dallas in 2023. Like several FC Dallas players this year, Ntsabeleng was hit with an injury bug that caused him to miss part of the season.
Stat breakdown
Thanks to injuries, Ntsabeleng saw his minutes reduced by a lot in 2023. He started three games in 16 appearances1, down from the 11 starts in 26 appearances from a year ago. His last start in 2023 was back in May when he picked up an injury 11 minutes into a match with San Jose.
When Ntsabeleng was on the field, for the most part, good things happened to him. He finished the season with a career-high four assists. But his passing rate dropped from 85.6% in 2022 to 79.4% in 2023.
Highlight
Hard to find too many big moments from him in 2023, but we’ll include the nice give-and-go assist on a Sam Junqua goal against LAFC.
Will he be back in 2024?
This one is hard to predict, as Ntsabeleng isn’t exactly breaking the bank on the salary cap for FC Dallas. He doesn’t count against the salary cap as a supplemental roster player. On the other hand, is he actually progressing as a 25-soon-to-be-26-year-old? Yeah, I’m not sure. My gut still tells me the club doesn’t retain him, and he goes down to the USL-Championship level and thrives somewhere else.
Final thoughts
Is Ntsabeleng a good role player? Absolutely. But I look at when he was healthy late in the year as a sign of things for him. He lost his spot on the roster to newcomers like Asier Illarremendi and will now be further down the depth charts when Sebastian Lletget is good to go again as well. It is hard to be 26 years old in MLS and be two or three people back in the pecking order.
Again, I really see him thriving at the USL-C level.
He did also start in the club’s lone US Open Cup game at Nashville.